What are the benefits of having a Registered Receipt™ in case of a dispute?
The Registered Receipt™ is a durable, verifiable, and self-contained record of each email transmission.
A sender views this receipt in their email program or clicks on the Registered Receipt™ HTML file to view the receipt in their browser. This receipt includes an XML file, and the service includes a variety of reports, each with transmission data that may be extracted and imported into the sender’s systems. This receipt’s HTML file may be used by any party to authenticate the transmission data and reconstruct the original email content – without the Registered Email™ system storing a copy of the message or transmission data.
Registered Receipt™ is an evidentiary record of high weight.
There are many legal opinions in the US and Europe attesting to this receipt as a legal and verifiable record of email content and timestamp delivered. Below are experts from one legal opinion related to use of the Registered Receipt as proof of e-delivery in accordance with contract requirements, laws, and regulations.
Evidence.
The Service provides each sender of an e-mail with confirmation of delivery of the e-mail and receipt by the recipient’s e-mail server, as well as the ability to reproduce the content of the original e-mail message, including any attachments. The RPost server obtains evidence of delivery and receipt of e-mail by recording communications between it and the recipient’s e-mail server as each message is delivered. The Service can reproduce the content of the original email and attachments (including PDF files) by using cryptography which meet industry standards. The methods employed are hash algorithms, encryption and encrypted hashes (digital signatures). This evidence of the delivery and the receipt of an e-mail to the recipient’s e-mail server, and the ability to reproduce the original e-mail content is provided to each sender in the form of a “Registered Receipt” e-mail.
Delivery and Receipt Status.
After the Service’s attempt to deliver an e-mail, the Service provides the sender with the Registered Receipt e-mail, which provides a report that contains the delivery status of the e-mail for each recipient. This Registered Receipt will also contain two timestamps regarding the delivery and receipt of the e-mail: (1) a Proof of Delivery (“POD”) timestamp, which is the time that the e-mail reached the RPost server after the sender sent it through the Service; and (2) a Proof of Receipt (“POR”) timestamp, which is the time the recipient received the e-mail. These timestamps in the Registered Receipt e-mail indicate the applicable date and time in both Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and local delivery times.
Transmission Data.
In addition to the POD and POR timestamps, the Registered Receipt e-mail includes the complete forensic transmission metadata for each recipient of an e-mail. This includes the underlying server-to-server SMTP or ESMTP conversation, including the potential for HTTP and DSN/MUA records, for each recipient destination of the e-mail.
Original Content of the E-mail.
In addition, this Registered Receipt e-mail contains the data that can be used to reproduce the sender’s original e-mail message as it was received by the RPost server. Use of the Registered Receipt e-mail does not require that any data regarding the e-mail transaction be stored elsewhere. The entire e-mail record and authentication elements (authentication is discussed directly below) are embedded within the Registered Receipt e-mail.
Authenticated with a Digital Seal.
To ensure that the data represents the original content of the e-mail and transmission data, and that the data has not been tampered with, the data is encrypted and packaged with RPost’s “Digital Seal” technology. This technology allows anyone to verify the authenticity of the e-mail content, attachments, transmission metadata, POD and POR delivery record, and POD and POR timestamps that are included in using the Registered Receipt e-mail.
Verify Original without Third Party Storage.
The Registered Receipt e-mail can be saved to a user’s hard drive or disk for later authentication or forwarded by e-mail to third parties, without corrupting its ability to be authenticated in the future. Any party holding this Registered Receipt e-mail can forward it to the RPost system, which will use cryptographic methods to determine if the data regarding the Registered Receipt e-mail record, as well as the embedded original e-mail content and attachments (including the transmission metadata and sending/delivery (POD and POR) record and timestamps), has been altered. If the data in the Registered Receipt e-mail is authenticated, then RPost automatically and immediately reconstructs an authenticated copy of the original e-mail message as it was received by the RPost server, including the attachments, and all notifications and transaction records, including authenticated POD and POR timestamps cryptographically associated with the original message content, and transmission data relevant to the delivery of the email and its attachments (including all relevant metadata).
Patented technologies. A sample of US patents granted by number: 7966372, 9432313, 8782154, 9596194, 8504628. A list of patents granted in 23 countries is available at www.rpost.com/patents .